What an innovative observation!

I/A misses the good ol days of Black exclusion laws and Shanghai Tunneling people.

"It's about heritage, not hatred."

I/A would do well in the South.

Amen. Too many greedy developers, too many brainwashed trendoids willing to buy what they're selling. It's horrifying.

Amen. Gentrifying"developers" and the all-too-willing enablers who buy what they're selling. Not to mention the new corporation-diggin' City Hall that's making it easier than ever to turn us into the Mall of (the former) Cascadia.

Oregon: California's Toupee

3.5 million in 20 years? But anyway, yeah, it's gone. Oregon in general too. I was born here. It is sad, but also irreversible at this point.

I can't shake the feeling that bitching about transplants and how Portland is "over" is what transplants do to make themselves seem legit. Sorta like how only transplants talk about "real Oregonians don't use an umbrella".

Oh, you miss when we had white supremacists and a huge crime problem? You miss when we had shitty bike infrastructure and a rampant drug epidemic? Oh yes, Portland was so charming then. You're so legit and seedy, too authentic for modern times.

Thinking back, I can remember when the pivot happened between complaining that people moving here didn't have jobs or money (competing for service industry jobs!) to complaining that they did (raising the rent and working in tech/advertising!). It seemed weird at the time, but I guess misanthropes gotta misanthropize.

Oh well, keep on complaining about how there's nowhere to live and complaining when they build new apartments!

Portland is growing- but I think that the 3.5 mil figure is
BS. The new urbanists want us to think that the 3.5 million will arrive next week and demand crapartments.

It took nearly 40 years for last doubling of the population in the Portland Metro area. The city proper has only added roughly 30,000 people over the last 4 years or so.

How are you coming up with this cockamaymy statistic? Let me guess, you heard it on conservative talk radio.

With word out about how the city is overrun with bums and the mentally ill, and the fact that Portlandia has made this town the butt of many jokes, I suspect the current rate of growth won't continue. If tourism is suffering, and the bulk of jobs in the city consist of low paying service industry gigs, that kind of growth is virtually impossible.

Oh, please. It's not the case that someone who dislikes gentrification and commercialization and homogenization necessarily DOES like racism and crime. Come on, man, let's remember the basic principles of logic. It's just a false, and ridiculous, equivalency. Nor does it follow that such people are "misanthropes".

Posts like these remind me why I almost never read comments sections anymore. All heat, no light.

People just want to bitch and moan about something.. anything. It gets old. If you hate it here, move. Cities change, you can't stop it. It's the most empty, fickle complaint you could possibly lodge. "That thing I liked 20 years ago isn't the same now!" Neither is your face, your dog, your job, your car, the economy, anything. Things change. And if you're really arguing that white supremacists, gangs and drug epidemics aren't as bad as condos on Division and a line 8 deep at Voodoo Donuts then I assure you that you're trying way too hard.

Portland has become a vastly better place. If you feel the city is headed in the wrong direction I got bad news for you: it's only going to get worse for you. Your best option is to leave and find your magical 1991 utopia elsewhere because Portland has moved on.

If that many people move here, the PBRquifer will dry up!

Whoa, you used "nay" in an I,A post.

Assisse: Your Social Darwinism sucks. It's evil, even. n fact, you've expressed everything that's wrong with the current situation. The fact that you're proudly unapologetic only demonstrates that you're unworthy of Portland. YOU are emblematic of what's ruining this city. And clearly, you're a liar: You weren't here 20 years ago, and you have no idea why Portland was fantastic -- until 2010. If you don't think this place offered something unique, then you and your kind deserve to live in what's becoming a generic dystopic American nightmare. enjoy it you d-bag. The rest of us will be moving to avoid your boring, conformist brain-dead ass.

anatta - your naivety sucks. Nearly every god damned city is different from what it was 20 years ago. Portland isn't some special snowflake that gets to trap itself away from growth and time. The country's population is increasing. The world's population is increasing. It's just plain stupid to assume Portland is going to remain the same city it's been.

You can either be productive about how Portland should deal with its growth or you can sit at home rewatching the VHS of that time you won the smile contest on Ramblin' Rod, but for christ sake stop telling the rest of us about it like it means anything. Portland isn't your city, it's just a city, and no one has to be "worthy" of living here you elitist boring trope.

It is a nice place to live, and Portland has always been one of the places I always wanted to visit. I live here and love it. No, I don,t want to change your history. Yes, your history changed when Portland grew. Some past history sounds a little like the old South.

I mean let's just embrace it - we can get some duck tours, an Amazon - think of the number of QFCs we could open - god and we could rename Sandy "Denny" - it has the same number of letters, and two of them are the same

Yuppy vs. Everyone else. Ready. Fight!

Change is the only constant. Get used to it. Best anyone can do is try and facilitate the sort of changes they'd like to see.

As someone who WAS here 20 yrs ago my observation is that Portland is still Portland and still one of my favorite cities.

Before I moved here the first time, I'd lived in Austin, listening to those who'd been there since the 60s or 70s bitching and moaning about how "ruined" it was by the time the 80s rolled around (but they didn't leave, mind you;). Saw it change a lot during my 6 yr stay, sometimes not for the better, but never so much that it ceased to be Austin or ceased to be one of my favorite cities. When I went back to visit in 2000...Whoa! Ben White is a fucking FREEWAY now! And where the hell'd all these chain stores and strip malls come from?? But it was still Austin and still had (has) a lot going for it if you are inclined to see it.

Let's not even get into how much the area of the gorge where I lived in the early 80s has changed since.

There just isn't anywhere that stays the same forever or that is worth living in that doesn't attract more other people. Sorry. You just have to deal with it or you'll end up a grumpy old fart sitting on your porch and yelling at the world to get off your lawn.